Los Angeles Times - 11.03.2020

B2 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2020 S LATIMES.COM

diocese announced Tues-
day. The Elk Grove Unified
district, Northern Califor-
nia’s largest, closed schools
for the entire week after an
elementary student was di-
agnosed with the virus.
One problem, said Beut-
ner, is that there are no
standard protocols for when
to close a school or specific
guidance on how long it
should remain closed.
“We look at the range of
alternatives: isolated com-
munity, isolated individual,
diagnosed to a specific place
— that might cause us to
take one set of actions,” he
said after the meeting.
Then there’s consider-
ation for schools like Hamil-
ton High School: 2,623 stu-
dents from 94 ZIP Codes —
some as far as 30 miles away.
And 221 employees from 88
ZIP Codes.
“So we’re planning for dif-
ferent scenarios. We don’t
know which one’s going to
happen or if any will hap-
pen,” Beutner said.

What does an emergency
declaration mean?
The declaration gives
Beutner the authority to re-
locate students and staff, re-
vise student transportation
arrangements and approve
alternative educational op-
tions. It also gives him au-
thority to provide paid
leaves of absence for em-
ployees due to quarantine or
illness, assign staff to serve
as disaster-service workers,
and order necessary altera-
tions, repairs or improve-
ments to district property.

The declaration also al-

lows Beutner to pay for these

measures without going

through the usual contract-

ing process.

L.A. Unified is responsi-

ble for the education and

safety of more than half a

million district and charter-

school students. If adult ed-

ucation and early education

numbers are included, that

total rises to more than

670,000. There also are about

78,000 full- and part-time

workers.

How would instruction be

provided?

The district has been de-

veloping contingency plans

but has released few details.

Deputy Supt. Megan

Reilly, who is overseeing the

response planning, said the

district already has two on-

line learning tools that

would be expanded.

One platform allows stu-

dents to receive and turn in

assignments online. A sepa-

rate system allows students

to take self-contained online

courses. That system has

been used for students who

need to pass courses quickly

in order to graduate.

But there are three seri-

ous limitations: There aren’t

enough devices for students

to take home; not all families

have internet at home, and

many teachers and students

are not trained to manage

instruction online.

The district has no per-

fect solution for any of these

challenges, but Beutner

asked the state Monday for

$50 million to purchase de-

vices. He also sent letters to

all the major internet pro-

viders, asking them to sup-

ply free emergency broad-

band access.

Beutner also is asking the

state for authority to assign

students to independent

study outside of the normal,

more time-consuming proc-

ess. And he wants the state

to stockpile emergency sup-

plies schools might need.

How about the hardships

faced by families and em-

ployees?

Officials in L.A. Unified

and other school districts

understand the hardship

that school closures would

bring to families, especially

in a district such as L.A. Uni-

fied, where about four in five

students are members of a

low-income household, and

where both parents work

and have limited childcare

options.

“We know that those who

will be hardest hit in a situa-

tion like this are the most

vulnerable, whom we serve

in a large percentage in our

schools,” said school board

member Kelly Gonez.

The campus frequently

becomes a locus for medical

services and family counsel-

ing. And some families also

depend on L.A. Unified for

food — about 17,000 students

are homeless.

“We have a very large

number of students who eat

breakfast, lunch and dinner

at school,” said school board

member Jackie Goldberg. “I

don’t think we have an an-

swer for that yet. ... Are there

ways to distribute food that

don’t include passing the

virus along with it?”

The federal government

has loosened rules to allow

students to be fed outside

normal school operations, if

a school is closed due to co-

ronavirus. And Gov. Gavin

Newsom also has indicated

he will support this goal.

Locations that serve stu-

dents food in the summer

through the Summer Food

Service and the Seamless

Summer Option can also be

approved “to provide meals

during unanticipated school

closures” at schools and

elsewhere, said Margo Mi-

necki, a spokeswoman for

the L.A. County Office of Ed-

ucation.

In L.A. County, sites ap-

proved for summer meal

service include campuses,

city parks, churches and lo-

cal nonprofit centers.

To avoid the gathering of

groups, families could pick

up meals and take them

home.

AUSTIN BEUTNER gives an update on the coronavirus hours before a vote giving him emergency powers.

Gina FerazziLos Angeles Times

Beutner granted new power

[Schools,from B1]

‘We have a very

large number of

students who eat

breakfast, lunch

and dinner at

school. I don’t

think we have an

answer for that

yet.’

— Jackie Goldberg,

school board member

their haul into the back seat

of their Lexus. Like most

people I talked to, she knew

others might consider them

foolish or selfish, so didn’t

want to give her name.

“We’re preparing for the

worst,” she said as her hus-

band tried to wave me off. “If

nothing happens, well ...”

She shrugged and let the

thought die.

She told me she wasn’t

worried about getting the

virus, but about the pros-

pect of long-term quaran-

tines. “We’re scared,” she

said as her husband hustled

her into the car.

It was clear to me as I

wandered the parking lot

that the fear was real.

And all around the world,

people are responding in

much the same way. In just

about every country with

coronavirus cases, stores

are struggling to keep toilet

paper on the shelves.

We’re in the

next phase now

When you really think

about it, the rush to stock

up, and the hoarding that

occurs, is not as strange as it

might seem.

This is not about preven-

tion anymore. We’re in the

next phase now: prepara-

tion for catastrophe.

People are looking ahead

— to when schools close

down and kids are home

and nobody is allowed to set

foot outside the house for

weeks because somebody at

your church, or on your

flight, or behind you in the

Costco line tested positive

for the coronavirus.

“The news says you may

have to be prepared for

several weeks of quaran-

tine,” said Tina Wilson as

she unloaded a few es-

sentials — but no toilet

paper — from her cart.

There’s an “overload of

information [that] height-

ens the sense of being

scared.”

She and partner Jennifer

Best are “old school,” she

said. They feel prepared and

will roll with whatever

comes. “Our kids are more

worried than we are,” said

Best.

They hadn’t expected

Costco to be so jammed.

But the crowd soon thinned.

Even with a two-package

limit, the store sold out of

toilet paper and water in the

first hour.

That held a certain kind

of irony for Best. The store

can’t keep up with the de-

mand for toilet paper, “but

the shelves with the hand-

washing soap, they’re still

very full,” she said. “What

does that tell you?”

It tells me that, in the

face of an unpredictable

outbreak, toilet paper has

become an unlikely totem of

order and cleanliness, a way

to outlast a dreaded disease

and be comfortable as you

attend to life’s basic needs.

Psychologists who study

consumers in crisis explain

it like this: Uncertainty

around the virus drives us

into panic mode, and we

look for a way to stifle the

anxiety that provokes.

We fixate on toilet paper

not just for its utilitarian

value, but also because

accumulating an overload

— imagine a tower of toilet

paper packages in your

garage — provides a reas-

suring visual cue: You’re

equipped for a long quaran-

tine.

As people begin to raid

the stores, the contagion

feeds on itself. The sight of

all those empty toilet paper

shelves begins to stoke a

new wave of panic in those of

us who haven’t loaded up.

Or as London behavioral

science professor Dimitrios

Tsivrikos cast it for Britain’s

Sky News: “If we had an

international sign for panic,

it would be a traffic warning

sign with a toilet paper roll

in the middle.”

Anxiety and relief

in the Costco line

That sign would have

suited the scene outside

Costco in Northridge on

Saturday. People queued up

for toilet paper and water

were like lines of traffic

merging onto the freeway,

steered into the proper

lanes by Costco employees.

Inside, there was a line

for toilet paper and another

for water; employees

guarded the intersection of

aisles so no one could cut

the lines. If you didn’t want

toilet paper or water, you

just had to wait as their

carts rolled by. At the rear of

the store, managers with

walkie-talkies policed the

“distribution sites.”

I had never seen the

store so crowded or the

shoppers so intense. But the

whole process seemed re-

markably well-organized

and orderly.

I could feel the anxiety

rise as shoppers neared the

distribution points and eyed

shrinking supplies. I could

see relief in customers’ faces

as they pushed now-packed

carts past empty shelves in

their single-file line.

As I roamed the aisles,

my mind flashed back to the

aftermath of the 1994

Northridge earthquake,

when I was too panicked by

aftershocks to return with

my daughters to our dam-

aged house. We lined up

with countless others in the

park for bottled water and a

bag of provisions that were

supposed to restore a sense

of normality.

I don’t recall if toilet

paper was in that bag. But I

do know now that the best

talisman in a period of crisis

may be the inexorable pas-

sage of time.

A toilet paper stash

is a way to outlast

hardship in comfort

[Banks,from B1]

UCLA and USC an-
nounced Tuesday they
would cancel most in-person
classes, joining the rising
number of colleges and uni-
versities to limit classes,
campus gatherings and
travel to fight the global
spread of the novel co-
ronavirus.
Four other UC campuses,
in Irvine, Riverside, Santa
Barbara and Davis, also an-
nounced similar measures
Tuesday, as eight of nine
University of California un-
dergraduate campuses have
rapidly aligned plans to
transition to online final ex-
ams and instruction into
spring quarter. The Berke-
ley, San Diego and Santa
Cruz campuses announced
earlier this week they would
suspend in-person classes.
UC Merced, the smallest
UC campus, has not yet can-
celed in-person classes.
The rapid succession of
announcements by major
California campuses Tues-
day came as higher educa-
tion faces one of its most
pressing challenges in dec-
ades. Universities and col-
leges throughout the nation
are launching sweeping
changes in areas including
instruction, admissions and
finances, to combat the fast-
moving contagion.
USC, which moved to on-

line teaching and learning

Wednesday in what was ini-

tially a test run of the tech-

nology, said the campus

would continue remote in-

struction even after spring

break concludes March 29.

UCLA — the UC system’s

largest campus — will con-

tinue remote instruction un-

til April 10 and then reassess.

No UC campus has reported

any cases of coronavirus,

and students tested for the

virus at UC Davis UCLA and

UC Irvine had negative re-

sults. But officials said they

wanted to take proactive

measures to protect public

health..

UCLA and the UC Riv-

erside, Irvine and Santa

Barbara campuses said they

would aim to hold finals re-

motely and transition to on-

line platforms for most

classes after spring break.

UCLA, USC cancel in-person classes

STUDENTSwalk into Ackerman Hall at UCLA. The campus will continue remote instruction until April 10, then reassess the situation.

Brian van der BrugLos Angeles Times

Campus officials say

they want to be

proactive to protect

public health.

By Teresa Watanabe,
Nina Agrawal,
Sarah Parvini
and Sonali Kohli